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Nightshade, a new, free downloadable tool created by computer science researchers at the University of Chicago designed to be used by artists to disrupt AI models scraping and training on their artworks without consent, has received 250,000 downloads in the first five days of its release. It’s a strong start for the free tool, and shows a robust appetite among some artists to protect their work from being used to train AI without consent.

Source: AI poisoning tool Nightshade received 250,000 downloads in 5 days: ‘beyond anything we imagined’

The legal disputes around the development of AI are serious business. But when thinking of these suits, an old adage comes to mind: this isn’t about justice, this is about the law. And the legal questions swirling around AI in this moment are less about what’s broadly fair and more specifically about fair use—which, to many authors and publishers, is only sometimes fair.

Source: Confronting Publishing’s AI Fears

The estate of comedy legend George Carlin has filed a lawsuit against the makers of an hour-long video featuring a version of him made using artificial intelligence, accusing them of stealing “a great American artist’s work.” A voice sounding remarkably like the comedian, who died of heart failure in 2008, appears on a “comedy special” titled “George Carlin: I’m glad I’m dead,” which was uploaded to YouTube earlier this month by the Dudesy channel.

Source: George Carlin’s estate sues over AI-generated stand-up special titled ‘I’m glad I’m dead’

While some of the major labels are touting YouTube as an important partner in the evolving world of music and AI, not everyone in the music industry has been as enthusiastic about these new efforts. That’s because Google trained its model on a large set of music — including copyrighted major-label recordings — and then went to show it to rights holders, rather than asking permission first.

Source: Google Trained Its AI on Copyrighted Music, Sources Say — Now It’s Trying to Make Deals

For decades, the Copyright Office has been a small and sleepy office within the Library of Congress. In recent months, however, the office has suddenly found itself in the spotlight. Thousands of artists, musicians and tech executives have written to the agency, and hundreds have asked to speak at listening sessions hosted by the office. The attention stems from a first-of-its-kind review of copyright law that the Copyright Office is conducting in the age of artificial intelligence.

Source: The Sleepy Copyright Office in the Middle of a High-Stakes Clash Over A.I.